Written In Reverse
by JMenace
Summary: Once the possibility of one's chakra migrating through time and space has been accepted, the soul is only a lunging step away. The Sage of Six Paths meets his descendents with certain expectations in mind, but love is hardly predictable, and Naruto is all seven hells of stubborn when those precious to him are involved. (Time Travel) (Naru/fem!Sasu) (I don't know either)
1. Chapter 1

I came alive at the sound of an alarm clock I had broken years ago, and found myself gasping for breath in a bed that I had outgrown around the same time. My untrained eyes flicked this way and that, taking in what details of my room the predawn light allowed. I eventually settled on the clock, reaching out with a too short arm to hit the snooze and grunting with a too high voice when it went silent.

It took me a few minutes to reel my sanity back in as I stared up at my ceiling and struggled to breath.

"That old bastard was the real deal," I said, tone full of childish wonder. I held my hands up, inspecting the places where callouses and scars should be, and found smooth skin instead.

I laughed. It started as a high-pitched giggle that suited my current frame all too well, and then it gave way to hysterical peals while I clutched my head and came to terms with my answer to the old sage's offer.

"Alright!" I cried, propelling myself from my bed and hitting the floor at a dead run. I dashed the moisture from my eyes, a wild grin on my face. "Time to save the world!"

_With my eyes, I can clearly see... Asura's chakra clinging tightly to you.  
><em>  
>A quick bit of hygiene and a glance at the calendar later, followed by a much more prolonged tour of the village, I found myself approaching the Academy gates. I nibbled at a sweet bun and waved to a passing sensei, who gave me a suspicious look before continuing on his way.<p>

Ah well. They'd come around.

"Been a while since I've pranked this place," I murmured to myself, walking down empty hallways on the way to what I vaguely remembered to be my class. "I'll have to fix that before I graduate."

Blind luck led me to the correct door a couple minutes later, and I slide it open before the excited fluttering in my chest could make me think twice.

The class turned to face me as one, and I stared right back at them, drinking in the sight of all the people that had graduated with me so long ago. People that were precious to me beyond words. People that I had let hurt, that I had let die.

Then I locked eyes with the person that I had let leave, and I found myself unable to move. God, I had almost forgotten what she looked like _before-_

_Unlike the previous predecessors, you've got this strange bit of foolishness to you... And that has given birth to this different possibility._

"Naruto," Iruka said, and I blinked, looking up at another person I had failed.

"Hey sensei," I greeted, mustering up a grin and grabbing another bit of food from the bag I'd bought. "Sweet roll?"

A few people snickered. Iruka was unamused. "You're late," he said flatly.

Ouch. "Sorry?"

He shook his head. "Just sit down, and don't make a mess."

I saluted with my sweet bun and then stuffed it in my mouth, surveying the room for empty seats. To my simultaneous horror and elation, there was only one open spot, and the girl sitting beside it was still staring at me. Challenging me to sit next to her, probably. My lips twitched.

Now that wouldn't do.

I leapt from the doorway to the row of desks three levels down, pivoting so as to avoid crushing Choji's bag of chips, and then hopped over Shikamaru's sleeping head to the table on the other side of the stairs. A graceful leapfrog over an indignant Kiba later, and I fell into my seat with a noisy thud. I ducked my head just in time to avoid Iruka's thrown eraser, and plopped my bag of goodies down on the table in front of my entirely unimpressed classmate- friend- lov-_ friend_.

She raised an eyebrow, midnight black eyes as piercing as they ever were. I put on my best Uzumaki grin and gestured at the bag.

"Breakfast, Sasuke?"

* * *

><p><em>Naruto, what do you want to do? After this battle is over, what would you seek? I want to hear what you think, honestly and sincerely.<em>

* * *

><p>Morning classes came and went, and soon enough it was time for lunch. Iruka called me down for a lecture on punctuality and the upcoming Genin Exams at the end of the week, which brought back so many fond memories I didn't even mind handing him his sweet bun when he finished chewing me out.<p>

"Don't worry, Iruka-sensei!" I boasted while he cautiously inspected the morsel. "I'll crush this test no problem!"

He smiled wryly and ruffled my hair. "I really do hope so."

A moment later I was dashing out to the Academy yard, eying the scattered groups of shinobi-to-be. Every familiar face tugged at me, urging me to run over and say hi, how are you, I'm so glad you're safe, I love you all so much holy shit. Alas, the girl absent from the yard called to me above all others.

Sakura caught sight of me as I ran over to her group of friends and cringed in preparation for my usual advances, only to blink in surprise as I breezed on past them. My first thought was the projectile grounds. From what I remembered, Sasuke was absolutely obsessed with perfecting all her fancy Uchiha kunai techniques while we were in the Academy.

No luck. I crossed my arms, considering the empty training ground.

"Another challenge, eh, Sasuke?" I mused. Well, no. She was probably just eating lunch somewhere else. Even so! That didn't make me any less up to the task of finding her.

I had gotten pretty good at that over the years.

I found her on the roof, looking up at the Hokage Mountain with a rice ball held loosely in her hand. I sat myself down beside her, and found myself put under her scrutiny once more. I smiled.

"Hey."

She blinked, looked away. "Hello."

"Hiding from your admirers again?"

She smirked, and I found myself drawn to the curve of her lips in spite of myself. "Not exactly."

"What's on your mind?" I asked, looking up at the Hokage Mountain as well- but no, I hadn't defiled it today.

"Hn."

Now didn't _that _bring back memories. I snorted, leaning back on my hands. "Whatever, bastard."

"Idiot."

We fell silent, Sasuke ignoring me like she ignored everyone back then. Well, I'd fix that soon enough, I vowed in between furtive glances at her lashes and lips and those damned beautiful eyes-

I exhaled slowly.

This... wasn't my Sasuke, I reminded myself. Not wholly. There were parts of her that made my teeth grind and my heart pound in equal measure that had been lost in the migration, and those parts of her were never coming back if I had anything to say about it.

The life that had shaped the girl that I swore never to forgive for beating me into the ground every time we sparred into the woman that I couldn't stop myself from loving wasn't worth the pain that it would cause her. Her, and everyone else that I cared about. So now I was going to have to put my money where my mouth was and fulfill my end of the bargain with the old sage. I was going to have to fix things, and change the love of my life in the process.

I chanced another glance at her out of the corner of my eye. She was beautiful, even now, but she was still a _child_. And no matter what I might like to fool myself into believing, I had _years_ on her. Years of memories and feelings that I couldn't just force on her now.

It wouldn't be fair. Not to either of us, in the end.

It hurt. God, it hurt so much to finally, _finally_ have her back, sitting right next to me, with no way to tell her. It hurt worse than the lightning she had punched through my chest the day she left, and then some.

All of the sudden, I found myself snapped from my internal conflict by my own rumbling stomach. Seems my late breakfast hadn't been enough. Should have stopped by that beef stall after all.

"Here."

I blinked, looking down at the untouched rice ball the subject of my struggle had shoved under my nose. Huh.

"You sure?" I asked. She nodded, and my eyes squinted with the force of my grin. "Thanks!"

She shrugged, going back to ignoring me in the next moment. Still, the silence that sat between us while I munched on her lunch and she contemplated the mountains wasn't as tense as it could have been. And for now, that was enough.

She wasn't the woman I loved anymore, and it terrified me to think that she never would be again. But at the end of the day, I had made a choice, not just for her, but for everyone that had been hurt by my mistakes. I was going to fix this mess before it could happen, no matter what, because I'd made a promise. To my friends, to the sage, and to myself.

And Uzumaki Naruto never went back on his word.

* * *

><p><em>I see... Is that your answer, then?<em>

* * *

><p>Why couldn't I just talk to him?<p>

I stared fixedly at the Hokage Mountain, a monument to a village that I would have gladly drowned in seas of pitch black fire up until very, very recently. I stared with eyes that could no longer truly see, relative to the otherworldly clarity that I had grown accustomed to over the years. I balanced myself on the roof with legs that had been stripped of their definition and, a traitorous part of me worried, their appeal.

Sitting a scant two feet from me, and munching on the lunch I had thrown together in a haze earlier that morning, was an obnoxious boy with wild eyes and a smile that tore the breath from my throat every time I saw it. Such as now. Why couldn't I just _talk _to him?

_Sasuke... What is it you want to do? What do you hope to gain through this fight?_

There was too much to lose. Too much to let ride on a careless insult between myself and the man that had taken up his solitary residence in my heart. Not when he knew so little about me now, knew so little about what comments meant to sting and what comments meant to _bite._

Then again, this was Naruto. I found myself smirking. Since when had he allowed a little negativity to keep him down?

"What's so funny?" He asked, and if there was one thing I hoped never changed about him, it was that little challenging glint in his eye when he said it. I've been provoked into a lot of stupid things by those eyes. Some more world threatening than others.

I didn't miss a beat. "Your grades," I said, familiar words rolling off my tongue. He bristled, thrusting a finger in my face.

"Watch it, bastard!" He snapped, jamming the rest of my rice ball into his mouth and swallowing it without chewing in his indignation. "Or I'll kick your ass! In front of all the instructors! On _exam day_."

I ignored his blustering, staring at the finger he had yet to remove from the tip of my nose. A memory burned into my mind by my past eyes rose to the forefront of my thoughts, despite my best efforts. A similar finger, pointed at a similar nose. A similar tongue, licking similar lips. Similarly hot breath ghosting across similarly tanned skin.

You're about to lose that finger... _idiot_.

And then the digit was gone as quick as it had come, and Naruto was looking away from me, coughing violently. Probably choking on the clump of rice that he'd tried to swallow whole. I rolled my eyes.

In a way, it was a sobering reminder. This wasn't my Naruto anymore, not wholly. The Naruto I knew made me want to beat his stupid, cocky face in while also jamming my tongue down his throat, but he had been lost to the migration. The Naruto that I remembered from the Academy mostly just made me want to beat him.

Getting back my Naruto would be difficult if I wanted to stay away from the actions that had caused so many problems the first time around. Impossible, some might say. The path he had walked as a result of my actions was something that I had no plans of replicating, which left me here, with this boy that still had no idea as to the difference between the kunai in his weapon pouch and the kunai in his pants.

I couldn't have my cake and eat it, too. We'd both be unsatisfied if I tried to pick things up here where we'd left them off there.

I cocked my head at the sound of a bell ringing somewhere in the Academy below us. That would be the end of lunch. I took one last look at the Hokage Mountain, and the hauntingly familiar visage of the Yondaime Hokage, and made my decision.

I was going to just talk to him.

"Naruto," I said. He paused in brushing off the bits of rice he'd gotten all over himself, giving me his full attention. My fingers twitched, aching to wrap themselves around his throat and shake him back and forth, aching to bunch themselves in his shirt and pull him close, aching to fist themselves in his hair and pull him closer still-

"Still hungry?" I asked, tone only somewhat strained. He pursed his lips, eyes going cloudy for a long beat.

"I could eat, yeah."

I stood up in a fluid motion, tilting my head towards the market district off in the distance. "Then hurry up."

"What? Hey! We've still got class!" Naruto called, but I was already leaping through the trees towards the afternoon food stalls. "Wait, why do I care we still have class?" He muttered to himself, taking off after me.

A strange sound danced its way up my throat and past my lips, light and breathy. Not a giggle, because Uchiha Sasuke did not _giggle_, but not quite laughter either. It had been a long, long time since I'd had anything to laugh about. Still...

It felt good.

* * *

><p><em>I want to hear what it is you honestly think.<em>

* * *

><p>I led him to a familiar street corner and, when he just so happened to catch sight of his favorite ramen shack and drag me inside, I relented with as much good humor as could be expected. We sat ourselves down in the middle two seats, and I pointedly ignored the middle-aged woman giving my teammate- lover- frien- <em>lover<em> a distasteful glare.

"Oi, Teuchi!" Naruto called. "Fire up the extra burners- It's time for me to catch up!"

Laughter drifted out from the back room. "What do you mean catch up? You were here last night!" A moment later an attractive young woman with chestnut brown hair and a bubbly smile emerged with a notepad and a pen. Naruto's face lit up as soon as he saw her.

"What can I do for you, Naruto-kun?" she asked.

"Two of my usual to start, and a small order of miso while I wait. And tell the old man not to skimp on the fishcakes this time!"

"I never skimp on the fishcakes, you punk!" said old man hollered from the back. The waitress giggled, scrawling down his order and turning expectantly to me.

"Medium shrimp," I said curtly. She nodded and made a quick note on her pad, disappearing into the back.

"Thanks Ayame!" Naruto called after her, a silly little grin on his face. My eyes narrowed.

I never liked Ayame.

My shrimp ramen and Naruto's miso arrived about the same time, and then around a quarter of the way through my bowl his first "usual" arrived. No matter how many times I saw it happen, I always found myself staring incredulously at the massive bowl with "Uzumaki" printed in blood red kanji around the base. Naruto, of course, tore into it with gusto.

"Ahh! Perfect!" He threw down his chopsticks into his second empty bowl triumphantly, and I shook my head, lifting my own bowl up to drink down the rest of the broth. When I set it back down, I found him eying me.

I cocked an eyebrow. "Yes?"

"Nothing- it's just, uh." He scratched the back of his neck, and suddenly I remembered how much I had missed that bashful gesture. "I thought you didn't like ramen."

"You didn't give me much of a choice," I pointed out, though it had been my own horribly deceitful plan from the start.

He winced. "Right, yeah. Sorry, that wasn't good of me, was it?" Before I could dismiss his concern, he did it for me, an idea lighting up his face. "I know! I'll take _you _out to lunch tomorrow, your choice!"

I folded my fingers in front of my face, hiding my smile. "Who says I want to eat with you two days in a row?"

Rather than take the bait, he jammed a thumb to his chest. "Uzumaki Naruto says!" I blinked, dazzled for just a moment by his exuberance, and then turned away.

"Hn."

He wasn't the man that I loved against every bit of my own will anymore, and it terrified me somewhere deep inside the empty little heart he'd forced his way into that he never would be again. But at the end of the day, I had made a choice. I'd come back to this village with all its painful memories, because I wanted to right the one wrong that I well and truly regretted.

And fuck space and time, I _was _going to have my cake and I was going to devour it, too. He wasn't the man I loved now, but god damn him, I would _make him_ the man I loved. One way or another.

An Uchiha's pride would accept nothing less.

* * *

><p><em>So that is your answer. I understand.<em>

* * *

><p>Creation began with a tree.<p>

Upon the precipice of creation, as the dusk of nothing ebbed and the dawn of everything flowed, a single seed was planted. From this seed grew life, chakra, and conscious existence in all of nature. From this seed grew a Tree.

The Tree's roots spanned endlessly, burrowing and drawing forth life with which it nourished itself, and by extension, creation. Life sprung from its roots beneath the surface of existence, and in doing so created an element for the Tree's roots to burrow into in the first place. _Earth. _

The Tree drew yet more life from its roots, and in doing so created the second element. _Water._ Its leaves basked above the surface of creation, drawing yet more energy in order to create life above, and in doing so created an element for the leaves to bask in. _Fire._ Its seeds drifted far, far away, spreading life to every corner of existence, and in doing so created an element for the seeds to drift upon. _Wind.  
><em>  
>Having set the stage of existence, the Tree was left with one final task. It spurred all of the life it had created into motion with one searing jolt, and in doing so created an element for the hearts of nature to beat upon. <em>Lightning.<br>_  
>Once created, life in all forms expanded from the Tree. Birds took flight in search of different nests, fruit and pollen of lesser trees drifted away in the grip of the elements, and above all, things moved away in search of room to exist. Without exception, life came from the Tree, and life went from the Tree.<p>

Until one day, a fool returned.

When the speck of life stepped back to its beginning, rather than forward to its end, the Tree did not know how to react. So it did not. The fool saw the Tree, and felt the connection between themselves and all of creation, but they did not know why. Helpless, the fool asked the Tree what the reason behind its existence was.

Now the Tree knew how to react, and to the fool it conveyed the path to their answer: A journey for experience.

A journey for answers that would begin and end with the fool's existence, and would branch off into different answers along the way. For only once the fool understood themselves could they understand the Tree. Sensing this, and lacking any alternative path, the speck of existence that had for the first time returned to its creation once again departed in search of themselves.

In the beginning, there was the Fool.


	2. Chapter 2

"You can't ignore me forever, you know," I said to the darkness beyond the bars. I sat a scant few feet away from them, water tainted by the negative feelings of myself and my prisoner sloshing around my waist. The sewer was the same I remembered it, as if the resolution Kurama and I had made to work together had never happened.

What had happened to the healthy white light that had punctuated our new friendship? Why wouldn't he talk to me?

I sighed, clenching my fists in my lap. I had prepared myself for the loss of my friends as I knew them. I had prepared myself for the loss of Sasuke. It had killed me to make that choice, to cast aside the bonds that had come to define me. But I'd done it, because I knew I could make their lives better, and I owed them that much at the very least.

But I had expected, for some reason, to have at least _one _companion on my migration. I looked searchingly into the cage that housed the Kyuubi, monster among monsters.

We had made a choice back then, in the midst of a fight that no one man or Bijuu could endure on their own. We had put faith in one another that had never been thought possible, let alone attempted. Our chakras, the very energies of our beings, had crashed into one another, memories, emotions, and strength bleeding into each other until there remained one shimmering pool of _life_ far beyond either of our separate capabilities.

We hadn't just become friends at that moment. We had become a single entity. A true jinchuriki.

How, then, was it possible that he had been _left behind?_

"Say something!" I shouted, because it was all I could do. "Talk to me, you stupid fox!"

Nothing. The seal might as well have been holding back air with how absolute the Bijuu's silence was.

I groaned, burying my face in my hands, ignoring the vile water that clung to my cheeks. "I think... I get it," I said, so reluctant to admit it that I barely heard it myself. "That old sage's son, Asura. He didn't choose both of us to be his descendents. Just me.

"That's why you didn't say anything when I made my choice. Because even though it should have been _ours_, it was _mine_."

I peered up through the gaps in my fingers, and spoke more strongly. "I'm sorry I made my decision without considering what it meant for our bond. I'm sorry I left you behind." My hands dropped. "I'm sorry, Kurama."

That was what did it.

The water covering the floor crashed into my chest, forced out of the cage by an incredible force, and a split second later the sewer shook with the force of the Bijuu's collision against the bars. I slid back with the current, finding my feet and looking up at my best friend, refusing to be daunted.

He was _furious_. His eyes, intimidating even in kind moments, had been smothered by crimson fury, not even a hint of his slitted pupils to be found in their depths. His clawed hands trembled against the unyielding bars, leaving no doubt to their intentions. His tails, the cause of the intense currents, lashed behind him, each on its own strong enough to part oceans and rend mountains.

**_YOU_**_**,**_ he snarled, actually snarled the word. **You have no right to that name, ****_human_****.**

I grit my teeth against his wrath, ignoring the way the water suddenly boiled and hissed and tore at my clothing and unprotected skin. If this was how it had to be, then I'd just have to form our bond anew, same as everyone else. I'd have to beat sense into his big furry head, same as last time.

And there was no better time to start than now.

"I have the only right!" I roared over the reverberations of his impact with the seal. Kurama had never once appreciated meekness, in all the centuries of memories that he had shared with me.

"Because of this seal!" I gripped my shirt, partially eaten away by the waters that Kurama's emotions had made so corrosive, and tore it off in one sharp motion. I slapped my stomach and it came alive with the black ink of my father's seal. "This seal puts your life in my hands, and my life in yours. This seal makes us the same. My name is yours, and your name is _mine_."

Never let it be said that Jiraiya's flair for the dramatic had not lived on in his apprentice.

**You are deranged, **Kurama said contemptuously, but it was too late for him. I had already accepted the pain of losing another friend, and resolved myself in earning a new one. I grinned cheekily up at him.

"Which means _you _are deranged."

**Enough! You will LEAVE. **He punctuated his final word by slamming all nine of his tails into the bars with such force that I was thrown off my feet. Back into the waking world.

I blinked, and shut my eyes a moment later, waiting for the nausea brought upon by the transition to pass. When the barrier between us had been broken down, Kurama and I had been able to move back and forth between reality and the housings of my soul at will, using my body as our medium. But now we were back to square one there, too.

"Ain't this a bitch," I muttered, rubbing my aching eyelids and chancing another look around the sunlit clearing.

And found myself surrounded by over a dozen stone statues of the big man himself.

"What the hell?"

"Uh, hey boss," my own voice spoke up behind me, and I turned to see one lone, sheepish clone made of flesh instead of stone. "Some stuff happened while you were out."

"I just told you guys to test out a few techniques!" I said, incredulous.

"I know, I know! But the Naruto testing out sage mode managed to gather some nature chakra before he fucked up, and none of our other techniques were working, so we figured we'd all give it a shot, too."

Figured. What a bunch of idiots.

"So since you're still around, you pulled it off?" I asked, hardly allowing myself to hope. My last remaining clone shook his head.

"I figured you'd want someone around to explain, so you didn't try it yourself." He eyed the statues, an unsettled expression on his whiskered face. "We didn't get any feedback from the others turning to stone. I... don't think they're dead."

That raised a few questions. Questions that I wasted no time shoving into the furthest corner of my mind.

I had hoped that _something _would work, of all the various techniques I'd learned in my years as a shinobi. I still knew how to do them all, what made the Rasengan tick and the exact way to coax the world's chakra into my coils. But from what I'd seen and heard so far, that wasn't enough.

Yin and Yang. The energies of the mind and the body, the heart and the soul. Iruka-sensei's lectures on the balance between them had never made as much sense to me as they did right now.

My mind was willing, but my body wasn't ready. I knew what to do, but my body had yet to do it.

"Looks like I've got some training ahead of me," I said to myself, and he responded with a wild grin.

"Time to get wild?" he asked. I nodded, and formed the seal for the one technique that had not deserted me.

"Oh yeah."

* * *

><p>I sat amidst a perfect storm of Uzumaki Naruto, glaring at a balloon that refused to to pop while dozens of me talked a lot about a little, and suddenly wondered if transmigration had been the right choice.<p>

When it came down to it, there wasn't much I could do with Kakashi-sensei's shadow clone trick as I was now. At this point in my life I had barely known what chakra control was, let alone had any grasp on it. It narrowed my possibilities down from the Rasengan and its many variations to the exercises Kakashi-sensei had given me long ago.

So I had clones running up trees, balancing leaves on their noses, and smashing their chakra together in the hopes of producing some scant edges of wind.

Back to the basics, I told them. Back to the very, very basics.

Off to my right, a clone made it halfway up a tree and then, in his excitement, shoved too much chakra into his next step and blasted himself into the ground. He died in a burst of smoke, and I felt my eyes cross as yet another set of memories forced themselves into my head.

I was making good progress for only a few hours of work, definitely more than the first time around I had learned these things, which I guess made sense. My memories had to be worth something. Unfortunately, the longer we trained, the more we learned, and the more we learned, the more I had to acclimate when one of my clones killed themselves.

I was good at making clones. The best, maybe. But I didn't make them to last. A hundred memories of a few seconds of a fight I could handle- it all blended together, and made it easy to discard most of it. But a hundred memories of a hundred different training regimens, techniques, and results? Discarding those would defeat the purpose of training with the dumb bastards in the first place, and taking them all in left me with one hell of a headache.

I tossed my balloon aside in favor of rubbing my temples, nodding in assent when a clone grabbed it out of the air and looked to me for permission to work on it instead of his leaf.

At this rate, it looked like I wouldn't be getting the old man's hat anytime soon.

"What time is it?" I asked, unwilling to look up at the sun for the sake of my throbbing head. A clone somewhere in front of me answered.

"Little after noon, boss."

My fingers froze.

"Shit! I'm late for lunch!"

* * *

><p>The Genin Exams came and went, and I passed them with about as much difficulty as the first time around. Iruka, a man I vaguely remembered as being one of Naruto's earliest friends, had heaped all sorts of praise on me while handing over my headband. I hadn't paid all that much attention to him.<p>

I had been more concerned with watching the next student in line.

Naruto never told me the circumstances behind his failing the Genin Exam and then becoming a shinobi anyway, something that fairly infuriated me as I watched him dart from the examination room with a naked forehead. He'd fled from the Academy and his jeering classmates, and I had watched him go, tying my own headband around my neck and swallowing down the sour taste in my mouth.

I had no idea what it was he had to do, so for now, all I could do was wait and hope for the best.

Thankfully, he'd pulled through, and the next day I had found him smiling away in the seat beside mine, the same as I remembered. The teams had, likewise, been the same, something that left me with intensely mixed feelings.

I stood now in the Naka Shrine, looking down at the Sage of Six Paths' tablet but not really seeing it, for a couple reasons. One was that my eyes were once again not strong enough to decipher all of its text. The other was the third member of my team, who I would once again be forced to spend months of my life with.

I did not like Haruno Sakura when we were classmates. I did not like Haruno Sakura when we were teammates.

I _hated _Haruno Sakura after I left Konoha, and she hated me just the same.

Our relationship had always been strained. She had admired me in our early days as genin, and tried at every opportunity to be my friend. When I ignored her advances, she'd turn her attention to our other teammate, and delighted in rubbing my superiority in his face. At the time I hadn't cared much about either of them. In retrospection, it had made me hate her even more.

As Naruto and I had grown more and more interested in each other as rivals- though neither of us had been willing to admit it at the time- Sakura had been relegated to a third wheel. It was around this time that her admiration had turned to resentment, having believed for some reason that I would favor her over Naruto in _solidarity_.

My desertion only cemented this. It hadn't registered to me as being something worth thinking about at the time, for many reasons, and I'd happily have kept it that way.

But then after years apart, entirely against our collective wills, Naruto and I began to gravitate towards each other once again. Our rivalry roared back to life, and slowly, something else grew between us. Something I had never experienced before. Something I had never known that I desired up until I heard the way that blond moron's voice had changed, saw the way he'd grown, and felt the weight of his own desires in the looks he'd give me between blows.

And then Haruno _fucking _Sakura decided to stick her nose where no one wanted her, as usual.

I turned away from my clan's ancient tablet, a single tomoe spinning in each of my blood red eyes. Of all the skills I had acquired in my life, all that I had retained after my transmigration was a handful of low-level techniques and the very first stage of my kekkai genkai; and the latter only because I had already possessed it at this point in my life. I just hadn't known it.

I stalked out of the shrine, dismissing my sharingan as well as my thoughts on useless pink women. Tomorrow would be Kakashi's bell test, and for all that I could have crushed him with little effort before my migration, I was a very different shinobi now. I was going to need a hell of a strategy if I wanted to get a bell tomorrow.

Not that we wouldn't pass if I didn't, given that I knew the silly lesson he was trying to teach.

... But I still wanted to.

I walked through the Uchiha District, memories and emotions whirling around my head. I had learned many things about my clan and its massacre after I left Konoha, almost all of them conflicting with what I had previously thought to be fact.

At this point, I was confident I knew the truth, but I didn't want to confront it just yet. For now, I would focus on things that didn't hurt quite as much.

I found myself at my clan's armory, one of the only facets of the district that I had bothered to maintain after the massacre. I stepped inside, gazing around at the weapons, armor, and materials within. I would have to choose carefully. I was at my best when I supplemented my kenjutsu with ninjutsu, which my current level of elemental control would not allow. It was going to be a difficult fight, no matter how I looked at it.

However, if I could get Naruto to play along, with the right plan... We had a chance. A slim one, maybe. But I hadn't been given my flee-on-sight ranking for nothing, and with the right direction Naruto had the potential to become just as powerful. I had seen him realize that potential, after all.

I had been rather _intimately _close to him every step of the way.

My lips curled. "We'll just need need to get creative."

* * *

><p><em>Ibu Kanko, Elite Jonin of Iwagakure, crouched in the shadow of a mountain with his hands held in the final seal for his signature reconnaissance technique, and waited for death.<em>

_"Senpai," whispered Rookie Jonin Iseya with a level of urgency that would have seemed out of place for a squad of Iwa's best and brightest, had it been any other situation. "They're coming this way. Should we-?"_

_"Quiet!" Kanko's second-in-command hissed, cuffing the smaller shinobi over the head. "We leave when Commander gives the order, and no sooner. Don't disrupt his concentration." Murmurs of agreement rippled through the rest of their squadron, and faced with such overwhelming opposition, the rookie did no more than glance uneasily to the sky._

_A moment later an arc of shrieking blue light tore through the air above them, and the Iwa team collectively held their breath as an impact hundreds of feet up the mountain shook the ground beneath their feet._

_They had been returning home, following a successful mission, and had tripped over their own feet right into the metaphorical frying pan. Now, the only thing keeping them from beating a hasty retreat was the risk of tripping again, this time into the metaphorical fire._

_The two monsters clashing above them were not to be underestimated. This much, Kanko's squad knew well._

_Konoha's Toad Sage, a shinobi of unprecedented strength, was said to perceive his surroundings by means of his surroundings, utilizing the perception of the world around him to achieve a near sensor-like ability of skill in tracking his enemies. The briefing had not made much sense to Kanko at the time- all he had gathered was that, for a short time, his favorite camouflage technique would hold against the all-seeing juggernaut._

_His opponent, Konoha's last Uchiha, and their greatest defector to date, was a woman that could and had frequently dismantled scores of Iwa squads simply for being at what she considered to be the wrong place at the wrong time. Where the Toad Sage relied on the world to be his eyes, the Uchiha's coveted bloodline allowed her eyes to be her world. Genjutsu, stealth, and deception of any sort were stripped bare by her fully matured sharingan- whatever she saw, she saw truly._

_Kanko's technique would not hold up beneath her scrutiny for any amount of time, which left him with little to do but hope the Toad Sage could maintain her full attention long enough for his squad to find an opening._

_"Damn it!" A harsh voice roared above them. "I don't have time for you today! Leave me alone, Sasuke!"_

_An odd sound, like a hundred blades being sharpened on a hundred spinning stones, revved into life above them. Several members of their squad, including Kanko, shuddered reflexively. As if it wasn't bad enough that the Toad Sage held mastery over a bizarre and powerful form of alternative chakra, he had chosen the creation of Iwa's most hated shinobi as his signature attack._

_The tell-tale sounds of the Yondaime Hokage's rasengan grated upon the Iwa shinobi, and a moment later were joined by the sound of thousands upon thousands of chirping birds._

_"Not a chance!" The Uchiha taunted, her voice guttural with tension. "You're mine, Naruto!"_

_"Duck!" Kanko snapped, speaking for the first time since the start of his technique, and his shinobi instantly complied. Kanko clenched his eyes shut, and braced himself for the backlash._

_A moment later the two legendary shinobi met above them, and a shockwave of chakra slammed into Kanko's technique, driving him forward from his crouch to his knees. A moment later, the muffled boom of the two techniques clashing shook the mountain above them, raining shards of rock upon the Iwa shinobi._

_Then the rasengan detonated, and searing light tore through the darkness of Kanko's closed eyes, rendering him temporarily blind. Around him, he heard a handful of pained gasps as less prepared shinobi were hit with the full force of rasengan's final phase of attack._

_Far too few had known back when the Yellow Flash had reigned, but you did not actually need to be **hit **by the rasengan to be crippled by it. It struck in phases, each with a greater range than the one before it._

_Kanko looked up at the suddenly ravaged mountain, blinking away spots of light. It was a truly monstrous attack, for a truly monstrous shinobi._

_His vision cleared fully a few precious seconds later, and Kanko dispelled his technique with a sharp hand motion._

_"Now!" He grabbed the rookie, Iseya, who was still blinded, and blurred towards the border in a shunshin. The rest of his squad quickly followed suit._

_Almost before he'd taken his first step, he felt the Toad Sage's notice fall upon him. Kanko **felt **the way the ground beneath his feet thrummed with the sage's influence, the way the area's sparse vegetation reported back to its master the sweat on his skin as he brushed past it. The very air he breathed felt inexplicably as if it were betraying him, whispering to the Toad Sage of his squad's panicked gasps._

_No one had told him the sage controlled the **wind**, too._

_"Wait!" The Toad Sage shouted, and Kanko felt the world shift around him ever so slightly as the Konoha shinobi drew from its energy. "You can't blow my cover yet! **Kage bunshin no jutsu!**"_

_"Senpai!" Iseya cried, horror in the young shinobi's eyes as he watched the Toad Sage's clones blot out the sun._

_"Don't stop!" Kanko commanded, dragging Iseya along on another shunshin. "Die running, or don't die at all! **MOVE!**"_

* * *

><p><em>"Gaaah!" Naruto cried, gripping his hair and throwing his head back in frustration when the Iwa team disappeared into the range of mountains leading to Iwa. "You always do this!"<em>

_"I do," Sasuke agreed, leaning against a gouge she had carved in the mountain sometime earlier in their fight._

_"I can never just have a nice, uneventful mission outside the Land of Fire where everything goes right and you mind your own business!" He kicked a rock with all his strength, sending it sailing off into the horizon._

_She nodded along. "You can't."_

_"You won't even let me kiss you afterwards, half the time!"_

_Her blood red eyes shone with devious amusement. "I won't."_

_Konoha's second Toad Sage gave the mountain one last petulant kick, and then turned to lean back against it with a grunt. He closed his eyes, seemingly done with fighting, but Sasuke noticed with intense satisfaction the way the muscles shifting beneath his clothing tensed and relaxed sporadically, rendering him capable of moving in any direction at a moment's notice._

_It was, in Sasuke's entirely unbiased eyes, an invitation for her to come at him whenever she desired._

_It had taken a while, but her idiot lover was becoming a worthy rival._

_"I spent so long planning for this," he said, drawing her attention from his musculature to the deepening tenor of his voice. "I had clones on every major border, decoy toads on the roads to Kumo **and **Kiri, and I even left all my ramen at home this time. Plus all the stuff I did for the mission!"_

_Sasuke smirked down at him, and she relished his vibrant blue glare. "Did you really think that would be enough to distract me?"_

_It had pleased her to see that he was getting more creative in his methods of avoiding her while on Konoha business, almost as much as it had pleased her to cut down every single one of his obstacles._

_"Think's a strong word," he admitted. He hadn't hoped for much more than time to begin his mission, but it seemed even that had been too much. Man, but granny Tsunade was going to **kill **him. "Damn it, there's no way I can stealth this anymore."_

_Sasuke tilted her head, causing her wild bangs to fall across her face. "Why would anyone send you on a stealth mission in the first place?"_

_"A great Hokage has to be the best shinobi in the village, in all aspects," Naruto said firmly. He had probably rehearsed that line, Sasuke mused._

_"What does that have to do with you?" she asked. He glared at her, and she flashed her teeth in a challenging smile._

_"This is serious," he said, and there was real fire in his eyes as he gestured in the vague direction of Iwa. "I don't know when I'll get another chance at this kind of mission! Granny Tsunade didn't even want to give me this one!"_

_Sasuke dropped down in front of Naruto from her elevated perch, and he braced himself for another brawl while she threw her arm across his chest, letting her hand come to rest over one shoulder as she leaned in over the other._

_It was a familiar position. One of her favorites._

_"Well then, Na-ru-**to**," she murmured lowly, punctuating each syllable of his name by stealing another inch of space between them. "It seems we'll have to get..." Her breath was hot against his skin, her face still pleasantly flushed from their fight. "**Creative.**"_

_Konoha's legendary Toad Sage swallowed hard._


	3. Chapter 3

From an outside perspective, it was probably hilarious to see how much I hated standing still.

It's part of being a shinobi, after all, and I had based my entire life around the concept of _shinobi_. Ever since the Sandaime had explained to my brat of a five year-old self that you couldn't be a Hokage without first being a shinobi, it had established itself as the foundation upon which I laid the stones of my dreams. By the end of my life, Uzumaki Naruto and shinobi might as well have been the same thing- if there was anyone left in the world who could still think of one without the other, I didn't know them.

But gods help me, I _hated _standing still.

I could blame Kurama, if I really wanted to. Gaara and I hadn't been so different when it came to that- I'd had a better seal, but Shukaku had a hell of a lot less chakra than Kurama. Having an unconscious awareness of oceans upon oceans' worth of demonic chakra seething inside of you, held back by the tiniest slip of paper possible, would make anyone antsy after a while.

I could blame my mom, too. It had been her genes that passed the infamous Uzumaki vitality on to me, which couldn't have helped my temperament any more than it helped my chakra control. I could blame my whole clan for that, really. I could blame Kakashi-sensei, too, for showing up late to training every day and leaving me with nothing to do for hours on end. I could blame Jiraiya for not taking my apprenticeship seriously until the very last minute.

I could blame a lot of people. But that wouldn't make it any less my fault, and blaming other people for my own stupidity always made me queasy. The actual reason was pretty simple, anyway.

I was scared, so I ran away.

I'd never admit it to anyone besides myself and Kurama- and only him because I hadn't been given much of a choice when we'd crashed together into a single being- but Uzumaki Naruto existed in a perpetual state of terror. Not of the war, not of the demon locked in my gut, not even of the murderous woman who always seemed bent on killing me one minute and forcing herself onto me the next.

It would have been possible to conquer fears like that, at least. Maybe even exciting. That wasn't it, though. What I feared most, and what I feared always, was _rejection_.

It was something that had plagued me for as long as I could remember. First, with Konoha's people and their suffocating silence, driven by fear of a monster that the most powerful leader they'd ever known had only been able to _stall_. Then, years later, with my classmates, who I could never seem to strike the right tone with. I was always too annoying, too stupid, too _Naruto_ for them to prioritize me over the other people in their lives.

And worst of all, with my first true friend. The girl who meant the world to me. The girl who made me the angriest and the happiest in equal measure. The girl who I loved.

The girl who left.

So I ran away. I never stayed still for more than a moment, to the point that I thrashed and shook and fell off my bed a few times every night. I came to learn that if I kept moving, there wouldn't be time for me to think about my life. There wouldn't be time to dwell. Uzumaki Naruto didn't dwell.

How hilarious it must have been for everyone to see me run away from my problems while screaming to the heavens that I'd never back down. I had certainly laughed when I realized it.

I might have cried as well. It had been raining that day, so it was hard to tell.

In the end, it had taken a lot more than a firm hand or a soothing voice to settle me down for more than a few seconds. It had taken a whole bunch of S-rank assholes, a dead god, and enough pain to lock up every muscle in my body. Not exactly what Iruka-sensei had recommended during his lecture on meditation, but I've never been a great listener.

It had been at that moment, while everything fell apart around my immobile self, that it had reached out to me. A gentle touch upon my brow, where the leaf of my headband would have been had they not taken it from me. A soft understanding, blooming from the new mark on my forehead and enveloping all of the world.

I had heard it called different things by different people. A natural enlightenment, a spiritual awakening, a sudden worldly breakthrough. I called it an apology.

I had been running away so fast for so long, that it hadn't been able to catch up to me.

I called it an apology instead of an enlightenment or anything like that, because I didn't really _change _after I made my new connection and escaped my near certain death. Not how you'd think, anyway. I still hated standing still, and I still fell out of bed every night. But that was okay now. Now that this new presence had finally caught up to me, I didn't need to be still anymore. It could keep pace with me as long as we were moving in the same direction.

That's probably the one thing that changed about me that day, and for the better. I started moving for the right reasons.

And every now and again, I could settle down if I had to.

"Wake up, idiot."

Like now.

I blinked seemingly bleary eyes open, peering down from the tree I had perched in. I registered Sasuke glaring up at me with a cute little scowl, and then threw my head back in a yawn that belied my absolute awareness. I stretched, twisted my neck left and right, and after cracking my back finally gave my teammate my full attention.

I could meditate when I had to, and for once I actually did. The understanding that I had reached with the world was still there, I could still _feel it_, hovering patiently just outside my grasp. But whereas back then I'd had the strength for it, but not the mindset, I now had the mindset, but not the strength.

Body and soul. Yin and Yang. Something told me this new life of mine was going to be frustrating as hell.

"What do you want, bastard?" I grumbled, falling lightly from the tree and landing in a crouch in front of my teammate. "Kakashi-sensei isn't here yet, so I can sleep all I-"

"Here," she interrupted, tossing a roll of cloth at me. I caught it, eying it curiously. It was a little bigger than my head, and was heavier than it looked.

"You got me a present?" I asked, shocked. I wracked my memories for anything resembling "gift from Sasuke" and came up predictably blank. Back then, the closest thing to a gift that Sasuke had given me...

I shoved that particular experience back in the dusty corner of my head where it belonged. It didn't bear thinking about now.

Sasuke rolled her eyes. "You said you wanted to see something from my clan's armory."

"Oh yeah!" I cried, tearing into the cloth wrapping with a fervor. During one of the handful of lunches that I had managed to wrangle the distant Uchiha into, the topic of one-sided conversation had fallen to the Uchiha district and all the cool shit that was still hanging around there. Her description of her clan's armory had gotten me pretty pumped.

I'd been hesitant to bring up anything related to the massacre at first, but at the same time I was well aware that if Sasuke didn't come to terms with it soon, things would fall apart just like before. The introductions we'd done for Team 7 yesterday had only enforced that.

_I have a certain someone that I want to kill._

I unraveled the last of the cloth, and my negative thoughts fell away in an instant as I looked at the armor in my lap.

A pair of deep blue kote gleamed in the light of the rising sun, the uchiwa symbol emblazoned upon each one where the back of my hand would be. I turned one of the armored gauntlets over, inspecting the quality of the metal plates with a blank expression. My insides roiled with memories.

This... If every day was going to be like this, this second life was going to be harder than I thought.

"These aren't weapons," I finally decided, looking back up at Sasuke with what I hoped was convincing disgruntlement. Never mind the fact that these had in fact been my primary weapons against her damn sword while we were both abroad and constantly hunting for one another. _She_ didn't know that. Not anymore.

"They're close enough," Sasuke said dismissively. "And they're the only thing I trust you not to break before the end of the day."

I allowed myself to bristle and snap back at her, falling into a routine that was both incredibly familiar and incredibly _outdated_. There were things missing, things that made my teeth grind and my chest burn. Little expressions, shared looks, and above all, ease. Ease in arguing over anything and everything, no matter how sensitive the subject. Ease in talking one moment and fighting the next.

Ease in combing fingers through the other's wild hair, in clutching each other so tight that neither could breathe, in throwing the other down and engaging in an entirely different kind of _competition._

I growled. "Fine, fine! I'll wear the stupid gloves!" I yanked them on under Sasuke's smug, watchful gaze, unable to look her in the eye, or in the anywhere, really.

This was definitely going to be harder than I thought.

* * *

><p>The world had been swept up in a sea of vibrant orange, and it was all I could do to maintain my self-control.<p>

It was difficult to admit, even- _especially-_ to myself, but I had become spoiled in my past life. After deserting Konoha, I had grown accustomed to life free from distractions like allegiance, duty, and Haruno Sakura. My life had been one of continuous conflict, and it had spoiled me beyond repair.

In particular, there was one person that I'd sought out whenever possible to quench my thirst for a good fight. One person that never backed down from me, no matter how infamous I became. One person that I could always count on for a clash that made my blood pound and my heart sing. One person that I never allowed to escape my advances, no matter what situation he happened to be in at the time.

Perhaps spoiled was the wrong word. It was probably more accurate to say that my past life had made me _addicted _to Uzumaki Naruto.

I was crouched in the shade of a tree, single-tomoe sharingan spinning slowly as I surveyed the multitude of blond shinobi crashing against Hatake Kakashi like waves upon a cliff side. Every few seconds one of my fingers would twitch, and the muscles coiled tight in my legs would spasm, urging me forward. I was itching to reunite his gauntlets with my blade- desperate, even.

It seemed that all it had taken to set my instincts off was a look at my rival-to-be in action. Playing by the rules, fighting with Naruto rather than against him... This was going to be harder than I thought.

"Sasuke!" A familiar girl's voice whispered somewhere in the branches off to my right. I scowled.

"What do you want, Sakura?"

God, how I hated this girl.

Down below, a small team of Naruto's clones anchored Kakashi to the ground, allowing what my sharingan told me to be the original to dash in and grab the bells at his waist. I watched as the elite jonin's chakra spiked for a split second, reaching out across the training ground to latch onto one of the clones at the back of the crowd, switching the two in an expert body replacement.

The suddenly switched clone cried out in surprise, thrashing instinctively against the other clones holding him in place, but the original gave him no time to be confused. Naruto latched onto the front of his clone's jacket, which was at about the same height as the bells had been, and spun around with a shout. The original heaved his clone through the air at Kakashi, and the rest of the clones present hastened to follow after the projectile shinobi.

My lips twitched at the unorthodox redirection of his forces. Not bad, idiot.

"Well, I just thought since Kakashi-sensei only has two bells..." Sakura said in a hushed voice, creeping through the branches until she was crouched all too close to me. "Maybe we could work together to get a bell?"

My eyes narrowed. If I remembered correctly, Sakura had made the same offer in my past life, and I had ignored it in favor of finding a better place to hide.

"And Naruto?" I asked this time. She scoffed.

"That moron? He's trying to fight a jonin head on! He'd just hold us back, right?"

My fingers twitched again, for different reasons. If only this girl knew all the grief she had caused, the pain and self-doubt she had hammered into the fierce blue eyes of the only man I'd ever loved. If only I could _show _her. If only I could watch the horror dawn as she realized exactly what she had wrought, exactly what kind of enemy she had made in me-

"S-sasuke?" Sakura squeaked. "D-did I say something wrong? Your eyes..."

I blinked, suddenly aware of the frenzied spinning of the tomoe in my eyes, and cut the chakra from my bloodline. I had already spent too much chakra on it, and I was only surveying the fight. This past body of mine was woefully low on chakra. That would have to change, and soon.

I had always known that my years fighting abroad had done far more for me than the years spent training by myself in Konoha, but I hadn't realized the difference in results was this stark.

"He's holding his own so far," I finally said to Sakura. And it was true. He hadn't actually gotten close to either of the bells yet, but he had forced Kakashi to put his vile orange book away so he could deal with the sheer volume of solid clones in play.

"He is? But he still hasn't touched Kakashi-sensei..."

"Then help him," I snapped. I shot from the tree, simultaneously fed up with the pink-haired girl and unable to hold myself back from the fight any longer.

I tore my straight sword free from its place at my hip and spun, gathering momentum enough to drive my target into the earth when I fell upon him with my blade. The chokuto, which I had grabbed as an afterthought while looking for the gauntlets I had given to Naruto, punched through my target's chest like rice paper, skewering him to the dirt.

The Naruto clone gave a single wet gasp, and dispersed into chakra smoke. I blinked.

Wait.

I looked up as the real Naruto cursed, jumping back from Kakashi and glaring at me. "What the hell, bastard!?"

"Hn."Honest mistake.

I rushed forward, sword held loosely in my right hand as I weaved through clones towards the jonin with the bells. The weapon felt wrong in my grip without any lightning to pierce with, or divine black fire to scour with. Without anything to enhance it, Kakashi would be able to counter it with whatever he happened to have in his flak jacket today. I'd have to fix that particular gap in my skills as soon as I got a solid grip on my elemental manipulation again.

Resolved, I lunged forward, polished steel flashing in the midday sun. It was a sub par weapon for a sub par version of myself, but for now it would do. I swung, and its sharp edge cut true.

Another of Naruto's clones clutched its slit throat, crimson blood spraying through the gaps in its fingers. It dispersed before it hit the ground.

"_Sasuke!_"

... Damn it.

* * *

><p>"We passed, we passed!" Naruto cried, throwing his arms up in jubilation as he danced about the bridge connecting training ground seven to the rest of the district. "And we totally kicked ass, too!"<p>

Sakura shook her head at his antics, though she was smiling proudly all the same. Kakashi laughed lightly, reaching out to mess with his student's wild blond hair.

"Don't get too excited, now," the elite jonin said, smoothly dodging Naruto's attempt to swat his hand away and instead patting his shoulder. "We wouldn't want you to burn yourself out before the celebration, hm?"

Naruto, predictably, lit up at the mention of the lunch Kakashi had promised them for performing so well on the test.

"Right, food! Ah, what should we get, what should we get? There's ramen, barbecue, ramen _with _barbecue-"

"I don't like ramen," Sakura interjected. Naruto stumbled to a halt, the blood draining from his face. "I prefer sushi."

He shuddered, offering her a shaky grin. "Well, nobody's perfect, right?"

I snorted from my place in the back of the group, where I had been covertly basking in the glow of Naruto's excitement. Naruto's gaze fell upon me like a drowning man upon a raft. My heart beat just a bit faster.

"What do you think, Sasuke?" He asked desperately. I pretended to think about it for a moment.

"Sushi's fine."

I didn't really like sushi either, but his horrified expression was too good to pass up.

Kakashi smiled at Naruto's growing hysterics, nodding along in agreement. "Sushi it is!"

We made our way out of the training ground district and into the afternoon markets, alternating between scoping out stalls and making sure Naruto didn't run off to drown himself in cheap ramen. The streets were packed with civilians and shinobi alike, and I allowed myself to feel nostalgic as I took in the swinging paper lanterns strung up between buildings in preparation for one of the spring festivals. It had been a very long time since I had seen Konoha in such high spirits.

As much as I despised this place at times, it had still been my home at one point. Most of my happiest memories had involved this village, and if I managed to fix my past mistakes, the rest of them would, too.

Kakashi led us through the crowds, his bobbing gray hair a beacon amongst the waves of common colors. I forced my way through groups and couples of all sorts, making sure to keep my teammates in view in case either of them did something stupid. I watched with unveiled contempt as civilian upon shinobi upon civilian bumped into Naruto and then recoiled, expressions alarmed, uneasy, _afraid_.

Trash, all of them. What did he see in these people? What made him fight so fiercely to protect them? What made him stay? What made him choose them over me?

"Sorry! Sorry! My bad. Ah, careful with those! Sorry granny!" Naruto chanted, apologizing to every person that gave him an off look, smiling cheerfully all the way while I stewed in my indignation.

We arrived at a surprisingly high end sushi restaurant called Sushi Delight, and Kakashi quickly ushered us past the serious-faced attendant at the door. The attendant bowed deeply as we passed, and Kakashi inclined his head in turn.

"We'll be taking a booth today," Kakashi said, and the attendant nodded gravely.

"Of course, Hatake-san. I assume you'll be seating yourselves?"

Kakashi chuckled, pointing us towards an open table near the bar. "You know me too well, Okura-san."

We headed to the booth while he hung back to banter. Sakura slid into the left booth, giving me a tentative smile and patting the spot beside her. I looked to Naruto, who was eying the menus on the table with an anxiety I hadn't seen in him since that one time on top of the Hokage's desk.

I rolled my eyes and shoved him into the right booth, sliding in after him before he could respond.

"It's just fish," I said to his betrayed eyes.

"It wouldn't kill you to eat something healthy every once in a while," Sakura chimed in, hiding the small hurt that my rejection had inflicted. "You might even grow an inch!"

"So cruel, Sakura!"

"I'm just saying!"

"Alright then!" Kakashi said brightly, appearing seated beside Sakura in a body flicker. "I made sure to order a full platter, since Naruto said he was so hungry."

Naruto groaned in agony, and I smiled behind my bridged fingers.

Drinks arrived a few minutes later, and my mind began to wander while the rest of the team discussed the missions we'd be taking, the training Kakashi would be giving us, and so on. Kakashi was as tight-lipped about the whole thing as I remembered him being last time I asked, which meant our improved performance on his test hadn't changed his intentions to bury us in D-ranks at all.

My focus drifted, and, as had all too often happened since returning to this time frame, it drifted towards a very specific person. I stared down at my menu with hooded eyes, chin propped up by my linked fingers. Dark, ugly emotion writhed inside my chest, clawing and twisting my chakra into something obscene. My teeth clenched of their own accord.

This feeling... It had been plaguing me since my transmigration. Whenever my attention wasn't occupied with the timeline, or Naruto, or anything suitably pressing, it dug itself into me. Taunting me. Whispering to me. Testing me.

It had hit me all at once during our introductions to one another, when prompted for my dreams. My answer, even in the privacy of my own mind, hadn't been to fix my mistakes. It hadn't been to become a strong kunoichi. To my secret shame, it hadn't even been to protect the person I loved.

It had been the same as last time. To kill a certain someone.

_Uchiha Madara._

"Sasuke?" Sakura asked. I twitched, registering everyone's sudden concern for me.

"What?"

"We asked if you'd like to start doing missions tomorrow," she said meekly. I closed my eyes, taking a moment to master my emotions, and nodded once.

"Fine."

"What's up with you?" Naruto asked, nudging me. "You got pouty all of the sudden."

My eyes flickered off to the side, unwilling to look at him while the memories brought upon by that feeling were still so fresh. Instead, I alighted upon a passing waitress, reached out, and plucked the slimiest piece of sushi from the platter. She walked right on by, oblivious. I turned back to my table and found Kakashi raising an eyebrow at me. I smirked.

Without looking, I jammed three fingers into Naruto's stomach, and when he gasped I shoved what I assumed to be a piece of seaweed-wrapped salmon into his mouth.

The blond shinobi slammed his head back against the wall in his haste to pull away, but it was too late. A strangled noise of pain tickled my ears, and this time I did look at him, just to see the way his face contorted in disgust at the texture. Sakura giggled and Kakashi laughed in amusement while he clawed at the roll of napkins wrapped around his chopsticks, looking for something to spit the pricey fish into.

"_Sho shlimey!_"

I settled my chin back onto my bridged fingers, silently thanking him for clearing my mood. For the time being, at least. I had no doubt that as soon as we parted ways that feeling would return at full strength, and I'd spend the rest of my day stewing in the events leading up to my transmigration.

It would begin with Madara, and it would end with Madara. Everything she had done to me, everything she had done to Naruto. The happiness that she had torn down, the pain that she had caused.

And the one she had taken from me.

Our own waitress arrived with an enormous platter of raw fish, and I steered myself towards eating, listening, and most importantly not _thinking_. For at least this one meal, I would focus on the living, breathing boy beside me, and not the drained, silent, _lifeless_-

I shoved another piece of sushi in Naruto's mouth, and latched my focus desperately onto the hysterics that followed.

This was going to be much, much harder than I thought.


	4. Chapter 4

**"Come on!" I howled into the starlight, voice husky with pain and unwavering resolve.** "Show me what you're made of! Prove that you have what it takes to be Uzumaki Naruto, Toad Sage of Konoha, ninth wonder of the world!"

My clone was all too happy to comply, hurtling out of the trees and throwing the both of us into furious close combat. The forest became a blur of midnight colors around us as we pushed our untrained bodies to the limit, blurring in and out of jukes and ducks, our gauntlet-clad fists hovering protectively in front of our faces all the while. My clone lashed out at me again and again with jabs at my face and stomach, swaying along with the rhythm of our exchange.

He pushed me back, his criminally handsome face set in a rictus of determination. He struck at me with all the speed and ferocity of a chakra construct that didn't have to worry about overreaching and being killed for it. My clone was free to rail against me with every ounce of Uzumaki Naruto that I had packed into his yet stocky frame, because he knew that even if he lost there would be another to replace him.

And even so, he was not enough to overcome me.

"You are _not_ Uzumaki Naruto," I intoned, ducking his cross and darting inside his guard. Only then did I move my clenched fists from in front of my face, digging the left one into his unprotected gut and throwing the right one out to my side. I splayed my fingers wide, and vibrant blue chakra bloomed to life in the palm of my gauntlet.

_Rasengan!_

My father's pride and joy took my left hand's place in the clone's stomach, and he gasped in mixed surprise and pain as the initial impact of the jutsu hit him. I grit my teeth and focused everything on maintaining the miniature bijuudama clutched in my fingers.

A sharp whine of chakra whirling against chakra cut through the late night noises of Konoha's training ground forests as the rasengan came to the end of its first grinding phase and began the transition into its drilling phase. My clone finally dispersed, a ruptured stomach going well beyond its threshold for damage, and I allowed myself a moment of triumph.

Then the rasengan faltered and blew up in my face.

Several hours later, as the sun began to rise and shinobi began funneling into the training grounds district for morning practice and team meetings, I ran amongst the trees with a spring in my step and a bunch of disgustingly sweaty clothes stuck to my skin. It had been a good training session.

When I arrived at my destination, the small river that cut through several of the genin training grounds, including my own, I hurried to rectify my sorry state. Jacket, shirt, pants, and boxers were stripped away one at a time, forming a nasty pile in the hollow of a tree that I had designated as my laundry basket away from home. That done, I spent a few seconds basking in the early morning breeze, and then took a running dive into the river.

The cold water slapped my slight fatigue silly, banishing the aches and pains that my clones and botched attempts at the rasengan had inflicted on me. I shook my head beneath the water, vigorously scratching my scalp, and grinned delightedly as the chill dug deep into the roots of my hair.

I kicked off from the bottom of the river a minute or two later, having scrubbed myself as best as I could, and took off down the river. Fledgling sunlight danced along the surface of the water, broken only by my own strokes through it. It's become something of a routine for me, since my transmigration, to spend my nights literally beating myself into the ground in search of my lost skills. And afterwards, it's become a routine for me to take the river to team training in place of an actual shower at my apartment, because my apartment was a lot lonelier than I remembered it being. It's easier like this, anyway.

I kept track as I swam through training grounds twelve, eleven, ten, nine, and finally, eight. On cue, I spotted a girl in a heavy beige coat running through a set of kata, and waved.

"Morning, Hinata!" I called.

I hadn't ever noticed my first time around as a genin, but Hinata trained like crazy. By the time most genin teams met up in the morning I'd have already been long gone, but Hinata was always there when I passed by. She always seemed to be working on some Hyuuga technique or another, considering she always had her byakugan on, and from what I could tell she trained almost as long as I did before team meetings.

Why else would she be red in the face and stumbling in and out of her kata by the time I went by? She was clearly out there giving it her all long before I showed up. I could definitely respect a work ethic like that.

"G-good morning, Naruto!" She called back in a strained voice, no doubt from all the work she'd been doing.

I made it to my destination a few minutes later: A tree in training ground seven that I had dubbed my dresser away from home and stuffed with a towel and some spare clothes. I pulled myself out of the river and dried off, throwing on my orange pants, mesh shirt, and jumper. That done, and with nothing left to do until the rest of my team decided to show up, I scaled my dresser tree and laid myself out on the branch that I had dubbed my bed away from home.

I threw an arm over my face, closed my eyes, and to the untrained eye, fell asleep. In reality, I turned my focus away from the outside world and dove deep into the dazzling sea of light and warmth that was my chakra system. As time drifted by, I immersed myself deeper and deeper inside, and in doing so I brought myself paradoxically closer to the infinitely more dazzling chakra system of the world around me.

It was something that I had never done before my transmigration- purposefully resonating myself with nature without actually drawing upon its energies. It hadn't been necessary. When the time had come for me to call upon what the toads called sage mode way back when, my body, my yang, had already acclimated itself to the pulse of the world's chakras. By accident, mostly, but there you go.

Now, though, I had the mindset, the yin, but the experiences as a shinobi that had acclimated my yang were gone. Erased by the Rikudou Sennin. So when I could spare the time I forced myself to be still, and I did my best to coax this inexperienced body of mine into _understanding_.

I had no sense of progress, no sense of right or wrong in doing this. When all was said and done, Uzumaki Naruto was not a particularly intelligent man. I could be sharp, I could be clutch, but parsing the intricacies of the chakra system that wound through all of creation was an act of theoretical bullshitting I wouldn't even bother attempting. Instead, I remembered my past self, remembered the feel of the yang that I had lost, and I poked and prodded at what yang I had now and tried to make it feel the same.

In other words, I was attempting to trick my body, and thus nature, into thinking that I was already a sage. No, it didn't make sense to me either.

But if nothing else it was kind of relaxing, and it helped keep me focused. Both were good things, especially considering what today was. Today, of course, being the start of one of a handful of events that had been carved so deeply into my memory that years later I still remembered everything that was coming, all the way down to the way the bile would taste in my throat as I threw my teammates over my shoulders and fled from the battle that would ultimately claim Hatake Kakashi's life.

Today was the day Team 7 took our first C-rank mission. It was the beginning of the trip that had laid the foundation for my relationship with Sasuke. It was the beginning of my first and second introductions to my fellow jinchuriki. It was the beginning of the end for the sensei that I never got the chance to really know.

Or it had been, anyway. This time, Team 7 would make it back to Konoha as a complete team. This time, I resolved, it was going to be slightly different.

And by slightly, I meant completely.

* * *

><p>By the time Sasuke finally decided to show up, I'd already twisted my chakra coils into a state of being that was completely different from what they had been earlier that morning. She leaned against my dresser tree, and I didn't need to be a sage to feel the expectant look she leveled at me.<p>

I began the disorienting process of pulling myself free of the innermost workings of my chakra, navigating through grasping roots of tenketsu and star-like clusters of chakra surrounding my internal organs. I came back to the outside world with a sharp gasp of cool air and the taste of sap in my mouth, eyes flickering open and gradually adjusting to the mix of greens and browns that was so different from the shining spectrum of light pulsing away within me.

I shook myself free from my stupor and sat up, twisting left and right and earning myself a few satisfying pops in my back for the effort. Then I reached down and wrapped my fingers around the branch beneath me. I arched my back and yawned explosively for the benefit of my watching teammate, and through the hand holding the branch I urged my chakra to flow.

A funny little fluttering sensation flowed down my arm, like the feeling you get in your stomach during an unexpected free fall. I narrowed my eyes, adjusting the flow of my chakra to match the new layout of my coils, until a few seconds later I got the desired result and my hand stuck to the branch. Satisfied, I swung myself down to Sasuke.

There was a reason shinobi generally didn't go around restructuring the chakra coils that the Rikudou Sennin had so graciously bestowed upon them. Generally, in this case, really meaning never. It was sort of impossible if you didn't have a grasp of chakra on the level of a sensor, or, say, an Uzumaki. It didn't have any noticeable benefits most of the time- the only reason I was doing it was because I already knew good things would happen if I could force my chakra to flow a certain way. Finally, it was _dangerous_. Something that might look like the slightest of tweaks to the untrained eye might result in losing years upon years of hard won chakra control, never to be returned.

Good for me that my idiot thirteen year-old self didn't have any chakra control to lose, and even better that my intimate sense for chakra had not been lost in the transmigration.

"What are you thinking about?" Sasuke asked, and I blinked. A couple slaps to my cheeks later and I was firmly back in the land of the living.

Meditating wasn't too bad by itself, but it was a real pain in the ass pulling myself from my sagely musings afterwards.

"Forgot to go home last night," I said, sort of honestly. "Wondering if my plants are gonna be okay."

"Out pranking again, hm?" Her disdain encircled me like a warm embrace, and I couldn't help but take a moment to appreciate it. No matter how much it made my teeth grind, it was better than the last emotion I had seen on her beautiful, infuriating, _amazing_ face. Always better than the horror and the tears that had broken my heart into so many aching pieces.

Always.

"Not this time!" I declared, jabbing a thumb grandly at myself. "I was working on a kickass new jutsu all night."

"Were you?" She asked, glancing at me in mixed surprise and consideration. There was a glint in her expression, the first hint of an excitement that had been a constant presence in our later dealings with each other.

Even now, Sasuke loved a good fight.

"Um!" I nodded, and grinned cheekily at the way she tilted her head just so, inviting me to continue. "Hey, Sakura!"

Sasuke's eyes narrowed dangerously as I turned to greet our third teammate, but I didn't pay it too much attention. Things had always been, ah, tense between my teammates, even this far back. If all went well, though, there wouldn't be any reason for things to completely fall apart like they did the last time around. This much, at least, I was confident I could fix.

Sasuke and Sakura were going to be friends if it was the last god damn thing I did.

"Uh, morning," Sakura hesitantly returned my greeting. Since my return to my younger self, she always seemed to be caught off guard around me. She didn't know how to treat an Uzumaki Naruto that just wanted to be her friend, it seemed. Man, but I didn't have a single clue back then, did I?

"Say good morning, Sasuke," I hissed theatrically, nudging the girl beside me. Her expression somehow became even more poisonous at that, and she turned her head away from both of us with a huff that I only caught because I was listening for it.

Heh. She's too cute.

"So what do you guys think today will be? Training, D-ranks, and more training? Or D-ranks, training, and more D-ranks?" I asked, not really expecting an answer.

All told, it's been a pretty dull second chance at life so far. It was to be expected, I guess. I've mostly been preparing myself for today, and doing my best to kick start the relationships that had brought me back here in the first place.

Something tells me things are going to be changing pretty soon, though.

"Tell me next time," Sasuke suddenly said, looking at me from the corner of her eye. "When you're going to be training by yourself. I'll join you."

Yeah, I could already tell how that would go. I didn't have a whole lot of power to hold back right now, almost nothing compared to the kind of crazy shit I was used to throwing around, but I still hadn't been giving it my all during team training. Mostly because I didn't trust myself not to hurt one of my teammates with my still faulty control. My solo training sessions were my only opportunity to claw my way back to competence, and I knew for a fact that Sasuke would react _less than well _to me suddenly whipping out the rasengan, no matter how incomplete my grasp over it now was in comparison to what it had been.

Still. It made me smile, because it was a sign that she was starting to care again. Even if the Sasuke I had known before had never stopped caring, not _really_, it had certainly felt like it at the time. And even if this new, old Sasuke only really cared about my secret kickass jutsu, at least she cared.

It looked like I was making some progress after all.

* * *

><p><strong>I wasn't making any progress at all.<strong>

It's been two weeks, four days, five hours, and approximately thirty-eight minutes since the last time I've held the man I love in my arms, and even longer since I've done so without having to worry about his impending death. If I had any sanity left to lose, it would surely be slipping through my fingers at this point. Alas. Rather than lose any nonexistent positives of my psyche, I've been gaining negatives at an even greater pace than usual. Sleep, in particular, has become a gruesome affair, to the point that I've decided to forgo it altogether.

The cause and subject of my most recent night terrors whistles a jaunty little tune, fingers threaded through his jagged blond hair as we follow Hatake to the Hokage Tower. It's still slightly damp, and I suddenly wonder when the last time we bathed together was. Too long. Far too long. I stamp down on a sudden rush of longing, inwardly lamenting that his hands should be bunched in _my _hair, just like mine should be in _his_.

It's been two weeks, four days, five hours, and approximately thirty-nine minutes, and I've realized that my current plan is not going to work. Shaping Naruto in the man that I know him to be is all well and good, but upon reflection, it had been our separation as loyal shinobi and missing nin that had ironically brought us together as man and woman.

That wouldn't be an option this time around. There were several, equally important reasons for this, ranging from my new understanding of the Uchiha Massacre to my conversation with the Rikudou Sennin. The most pressing of these was, of course, that Naruto wouldn't see me that way for several years to come if I walked the same path as before.

I am not a patient woman. Two weeks, four days, five hours, and approximately forty-one minutes was already dangerously close to my limit. And so, because I could not make him love me like I did before, and subtly opening myself up to him as a teammate and a sparring partner was not working nearly as well as I remembered, I was going to have to adjust my tactics.

I was going to have to make Naruto love me the _traditional _way. May Amaterasu cleanse my sinful soul.

"Actually, Kakashi, I was wondering if your team would be up to a C-rank mission today."

I blinked, realizing that we had reached the mission distribution center at some point during my sour musings. That was concerning. Situational awareness was something I had never bothered to improve, or even maintain, after keeping my fully matured sharingan active at all times became an option. That would have to change. Or I would have to get my sight back. Whichever came first.

"A C-rank, hm?" Kakashi pondered, tapping his pornographic book to his chin in thought. An unreadable brown eye focused on me for the briefest of moments, and I cocked an eyebrow. _Do you really need to ask? _

He quirked a little smile beneath his mask, attention sliding from me to Sakura. The other kunoichi was staring at the Hokage with an expression that was half jubilation and half anxiety. It made her look constipated, in my unbiased opinion. Kakashi turned his attention away from her when it became clear she didn't yet have an opinion to give, and locked eyes with Naruto.

Naruto... was smiling. Not grinning, dancing, screaming at the top of his lungs, or any other irritating alternative. He was just standing there, arms held loosely at his sides, looking up at Kakashi with a smile that made my heart race.

It's a smile I've seen before. A smile that I've seen bring women and enemy shinobi to their knees with little regard as to which was which, or which was _both_. It was a simple thing, a small parting of the lips, a flash of too-sharp canines. It made his eyes dance like lightning, deadlier than any raiton jutsu I knew.

I liked that smile. I liked it a lot.

"Let's do it."

Hnnnn.

"Well, if you're sure!" Kakashi said happily, as if Naruto's opinion was the only deciding factor in his decision. For all I knew, it was. I never did find out how much of his carefree attitude was an act before his violent death. "How may we serve, Hokage-sama?"

"Your client is a merchant from Yu no Kuni. He's finished his business with Konoha for the year and would like you to escort him back home, in case he runs into any unsavory characters during the trip. Ryoko, if you could fetch Kahaya-san?" The secretary standing dutifully by the mission desk hurried out of the room, and a few minutes after the Hokage finished up with the pre-mission pleasantries she returned with a portly old man in tow.

"Good morning, Hokage-sama! A pleasure, as always," Kahaya-san boomed, bowing as low as his gut would allow him. The merchant from Hot Water was dressed in well worn traveling clothes that matched his thinning gray hair, and he held himself with the ease of a civilian that knew they were at the mercy of every single shinobi in the room and had stopped caring long ago.

He was utterly forgettable, as was his mission. This part of our trip was unimportant. The real challenge would come later.

While Kakashi introduced us to the client and vice versa, I returned my attention to what was important. Namely, recapturing Naruto's heart. My quest to improve the younger, infinitely more irritating version of my beloved fool wasn't going as poorly as I liked to make it out to be, in all honesty. He had yet to do anything truly unacceptable- in fact, aside from the general Narutoisms that would be a part of him no matter what I did, he hadn't done _anything _annoying. It was somewhat frustrating that all it took was me treating him vaguely like an equal to radically change his demeanor- it made me wish I had done so sooner, the first time around.

Unfortunately, we weren't getting anywhere romantically. Which meant we also weren't getting anywhere physically. It's been so long since I've made him bleed. When was the last time I drove my cold steel through him? When was the last time he drove his wood into _me_?

Too long, on both accounts. Far too long.

Solutions, solutions. Traditional interactions as teammates has worked thus far in improving our interactions with one another. Perhaps a traditional romance will work much the same? His attraction to Sakura certainly seemed traditional enough, from what little I can remember of it before we drove it into the dirt with our own frenzied relationship.

Twelve year old Naruto preferred girls that wore perfume, dressed nicely, and had charming personalities. Eventually, he would come to his senses and prefer women that were me. Until then, I could play along.

"Alright, team, we'll meet at the northern gate in one hour. Pack carefully, and don't forget your rations!" Rations, hm?

I knew just where to start.

* * *

><p>"You made me... a bento?" Naruto stared at me with terrified eyes, as if the box of food I held in my hands was an exploding tag strapped to his littlest Uzumaki, and I was only a hand seal away from setting it off.<p>

Mm, that had been a good night.

"Yes," I replied evenly, not quite sure what to do now that I had prepared the food and presented it to him. My knowledge of traditional courtship was, admittedly, a bit lacking. Perhaps I wasn't being clear enough. "I thought you might like something more appetizing than field rations while we're away from Konoha."

Naruto took a half step backwards, and in my peripheral vision I noted Sakura watching us with complete bewilderment. Kakashi's expression was obscured by his book, but I got the feeling he was giggling more than he usually did. Was I still missing something? What did that Hyuuga bitch always do when she wanted to give him something?

"Please accept it," I murmured, turning my head demurely away from him.

There was a beat of silence. Even the chunin guarding the gates leaned forward in their booth to watch the spectacle. Naruto took a deep breath.

"_Kai._"

I very carefully did not stab him.

He took the bento, then, grinning sheepishly. He still looked a little shaken up, but I suppose I shouldn't have expected anything different. I had seen for myself how cold the rest of the village was to him- for all I knew, this was the first real gift he had ever received, small as it was. And wasn't that a depressing thought.

"Thanks, Sasuke," he said, holding the box about a foot away from his person. What would the Hyuuga do now?

I tapped my fingers together, averting my gaze once again. Amaterasu save me, I hated this already. How could that girl ever claim to have feelings for Naruto when she never _looked _at him? "I hope you like it," I said nonetheless.

"Sasuke?" Sakura squeaked. "Are you okay?"

"Yes," I replied, a moment too late realizing that the Hyuuga never spoke so coldly. Ah, well. I didn't actually want to _be_ Hyuuga Hinata. Just the thought of it made me feel dirty. And weak. And _pathetic_.

"So, uh, did you get Sakura one, or did you want us to share...?"

"No," I snapped. That was the very nearly the last thing I wanted, just below _not_ murdering Uchiha Madara. "It's for you." After a pause, I added. "For the lunch you bought me, before."

Uneasy silence settled amongst our team and the chunin who had nothing better to do. Our client had yet to arrive, which meant this was the perfect time for Naruto to eat the bento and realize what a good cook I am. Not that I had ever really cooked for him in the past, or had any plans to do so on a regular basis in the future. Regardless.

Eventually, he got the hint. "O-oh! Right!" He popped the bento open, his mouth falling open ever so slightly at its contents. I had considered shaping the rice balls into hearts or his face, but had dismissed the former as being too obvious and the latter as being a little sad. Instead, I had made one in the image of the Uzumaki spiral crest, and the other in the shape of an uchiwa. Simple and effective.

"It looks great," he offered. I raised an eyebrow at him. "Well, um... bottoms up-"

"Kakashi-san!" Kahaya bellowed, and Naruto slammed the bento shut with a sigh of relief. I crossed my arms over my chest, just barely restraining the urge to put my chokuto between the old man's eyes as he came huffing and puffing up to us. "I'm terribly sorry for the delay! I got caught up in some last minute goodbyes, and you know how those are-"

"Not a problem, Kahaya-san," Kakashi said, pocketing his book and giving me an incredibly amused look. "Shall we?" I scowled.

Next time.

* * *

>"Kakashi-sensei, where exactly are we going in Yu no Kuni?" Sakura asked some time later, when the sun had long since passed its apex and settled into its descent.<p>"A little resort village called Haru just off of Yugakure," Kakashi supplied, shielding his eye with his book and glancing up at the sky. "It'll take us a few days to get there at this pace, so we'll turn in for the night once we reach the next town."<p>

"Fan- fantastic idea," Kahaya wheezed, leaning heavily on his walking stick and doing his best not to have a heart attack. "I support it one hundred percent!"

"Is the town close?" Sakura asked hopefully, wiping the sweat from her massive brow. All things considered, it was a hellishly hot day. Even the encroaching evening did little for Hi no Kuni's infamous humidity.

Kakashi nodded. "Very close. Only three or four more hours if I remember correctly." He tilted his head, humming thoughtfully. "Although, that was at a jonin's pace, come to think of it." Sakura groaned miserably, and Naruto made a disgusted noise low in his throat, swinging his backpack around and rifling through it.

A few seconds later I realized what he was looking for and very casually reached into my own pack, pulling out my canteen and taking a slow, luxurious pull from it. I caressed the lip of it with my tongue, drinking deeply and pulling it out of my mouth with a soft pop. A few moments later Naruto cursed, throwing his pack back over his shoulder.

"Thirsty?"

Naruto looked to me, then my canteen, and swallowed. "Little bit."

"Take the rest," I said generously, offering him the bottle. I felt Kakashi's scrutiny on me, but didn't pay it any heed. He wouldn't interfere, and if he did, I'd end him.

Naruto's eyes lit up. "You sure?" he asked, nearly vibrating with the desire to snatch the water from my hand. I hummed my assent, tossing it to him, and he wasted no time guzzling it down.

I waited until he was finished. He sighed contentedly, wiping a bit of moisture from where it had run tantalizingly down his chin and throat, and offered the canteen back to me. I turned away from him, to his confusion, and channeled Hyuuga Hinata to the best of my ability as I buried my face in my hands.

"An indirect kiss," I whispered, wishing I knew how to blush on command.  
>Kakashi skillfully turned a snort into a polite cough, Sakura gaped, and Naruto did his best to choke on air.<p>

"What the _fuck_, Sasuke?"

Hn. Next time.

* * *

><p>The town we stopped for the night at, as well as the hotel Kakashi decided on, were exactly as I remembered them to be. Quaint, spacious, and with far too many available places to stay. Kahaya was given a room of his own, being that he was the one paying, while Kakashi and Naruto took another, leaving me with Sakura. Too much space to force us all into one room, but not spacious enough to get me away from Sakura. Unfortunate.<p>

I would have very little time to accomplish the next stage of my plan, for this younger body of mine remained a genin's frame, for all my S-class knowledge, and Kakashi was a seasoned jonin. I wasn't confident enough in my current infiltration skills to risk sneaking into his room and extracting Naruto. I would have to make what time I had count.

And so it was that I found myself bathing in the men's hot springs, having cleared it out of any and all inhabitants with a few carefully placed words and even more carefully placed kunai.

I squeezed the sponge the hotel staff had provided in my room, along with various other toiletries, and gently ran it between my thighs. It slid down to the tips of my toes, leaving suds in its wake, and then ghosted back up my pale white skin on its way to my neck. I cleansed the sweat and grime from my body with all the grace of a noblewoman, one stroke at a time, humming all the while to a song that one of my aunts used to sing to me before Itachi brutally murdered her.

When I was covered head to toe in soap and shampoo, well and truly clean, I rinsed it all away with a few buckets of water. Then I listened intently, and when I heard nothing, picked the sponge back up and started washing again.

I was on my third cycle of scrubbing when I heard the door to the changing room open with a sharp rap. I smiled slowly, rising from my stool and stretching languidly, naked as the day I was born. The door to the hot springs slid open, and I heard a sharp intake of breath from a familiar set of lungs. I smiled even wider and bent at the waist to grab my most recent bucket of water.

"Hnngh."

"Naruto," I said, injecting as much surprise and indignation as possible into the name. It was difficult, but the fact that he couldn't see my devious smile helped me somewhat. "This is the women's bath, you know."

I emptied the bucket over my head, shaking the moisture out of my air and perhaps wiggling my hips ever so slightly.

"The hell it is," Naruto bit out, far more indignantly than I had managed. That's fine. I like angry Naruto more than flustered Naruto anyway. Not much, but enough to measure.

I turned just enough to give him a wide-eyed look. "I picked the wrong one?" Naruto crossed his arms over his bare chest- _Mmm_- unamused. "I see," I said softly.

I had considered channeling the Hyuuga again for this one, but had dismissed the situation as being too extreme for such a persona. Stammering like one of Orochimaru's lackies or fainting dead away would do nothing for me. I had also considered channeling Sakura. Don't ask me why.

In the end, I decided on a middle of the road approach.

I bent down once again, picked the sponge up, and gestured to my stool. "Would you like me to wash your back?"

Naruto walked back into the changing room without another word.

Damn it. _Next time_.


End file.
